1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to personal navigation devices, and more particularly, to a method for utilizing a personal navigation device to estimate a travel time to a venue and for reminding users about future appointments at the venue while providing users with enough time to travel to the venue.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Global Positioning System (GPS) based navigation devices are well known and are widely employed as in-car navigation devices. Common functions of a navigation device include providing a map database for generating navigation instructions that are then shown on a display of the navigation device. These navigation devices are often mounted on or in the dashboard of a vehicle using a suction mount or other mounting means.
The term “navigation device” refers to a device that enables a user to navigate to a pre-defined destination. The device may have an internal system for receiving location data, such as a GPS receiver, or may merely be connectable to a receiver that can receive location data. The device may compute a route itself, or communicate with a remote server that computes the route and provides navigation information to the device, or a hybrid device in which the device itself and a remote server both play a role in the route computation process. Personal GPS navigation devices are not permanently integrated into a vehicle but instead are devices that can readily be mounted in or otherwise used inside a vehicle. Generally (but not necessarily), they are fully self-contained—i.e. include an internal GPS antenna, navigation software and maps and can hence plot and display a route to be taken.
Traditionally, people have relied upon paper or electronic calendars for keeping track of their future appointments. Electronic calendars can give the user a reminder about the appointment at a set amount of time before the appointment begins.
A problem arises when a user has an appointment at a venue that is away from their current location, and the user wishes to be reminded in time to start the journey and arrive at the appointment location on time, but not too early. This is particularly difficult for the user to estimate when the user is unfamiliar with the area or is not sure where they will be immediately before the appointment.
Automated calendar systems, like those found in a computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a smartphone often know where the appointment is, but they do not automatically or dynamically take in to account the amount of time it takes to get to the venue.
Typically, appointment systems allow the user to determine a length of time before the appointment that they want to be reminded of. However, this does not take into account travel times since the appointment system cannot accurately know or predict the location of the user. Appointment systems also do not have access to information that will allow them to calculate the time that it will take the user to travel to the venue in order that the reminder can be raised at the correct time.
The user of the appointment system can manually estimate the time that it will take to travel based on their expected location prior to the meeting. However, this assumes that they know where they will be, that they will be where they intended to be, and that there are not other events that will change the time that the journey will take.